How to save a wolf
by JetCooke
Summary: Damocles Belby has suffered loss in his life. Now he wants to stop others experiencing the same loss.


**Written for Diagon Alley Fic Crawl - Potage's Cauldron Shop**

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Damocles Belby huffed angrily as he pushed his glasses up his long thin nose. It was irritating that with all the advancements made in healing magic there still was no cure for short-sightedness. In fact he thought wonderingly there were numerous things that in this day and age you would expect there to be cures for or at least treatments. His thoughts drifted to his high school sweetheart. He'd loved Elinor Urquhart, they'd planned to get married once they had graduated Hogwarts and then that dreadful night had happened. They'd had a moonlit picnic and fallen asleep under the stars. Oh they had been so happy, so in love. On awakening in the early hours of the morning Elinor had been adamant she could walk home alone.

"I'm not a child, Dam" she'd said "I'll be fine."

Damocles never forgave himself for letting her go. He should have argued more, refused to let her leave alone but he hadn't and he would have to live with that forever. Just minutes from home Elinor had been attacked by a werewolf. Savaged and left for dead. But she didn't die, not then anyway. She had survived for one transformation. One moon cycle. Just one. Her note had said that the pain of transformation was too much to bear She could not cope with the pain of transformation, the ache that coursed through her bones continually even when it wasn't the full moon or the fact that from then on she was an outcast, shunned by society. That note and his memories were all Damocles had left of Elinor and he'd found himself thinking of her more and more recently. Damocles gave himself a shake, it had been years and years since that fateful day, why was he thinking about it so much recently? He had always wondered why no one had found a cure. Had anyone even tried? Did anyone even try to alleviate their suffering? If there had been a cure or even something to reduce the pain and the stigma he might have still had Elinor with him. Beautiful, carefree Elinor. She had been the epitome of Hufflepuff, loving, kind caring but she had also had a streak of nerve that put Gryffindors to shame. Oh he had loved her. He sighed sadly as he pushed away maudlin thoughts. Now was not the time for melancholia, he needed to get ready for tonight.

Damocles' red hair and green eyes had always made him stand out. Even at a family gathering such as this he was the odd one out. The rest of his family had dull brown hair and stood dramatically shorter than he did. They also didn't share some of his more progressive views.

"No, Damocles, don't be ridiculous. Werewolves do not deserve pain relief or research in to cures. They need killing. They are beasts, monsters, they deserve nothing but death. Aristocles Belby glared at Damocles with fervour in his eyes. "If I had my way all werewolves would be hunted down and killed."

"You do realise my fiancée was turned into one of those beasts you talk about. My beautiful, caring, tender hearted Elinor. She was one of those beasts you mention. But she was not, she was not a monster." Damocles voice was quiet as he surveyed his brother over his wire rimmed glasses.

"Yes she was. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Damocles but she was. Once she was bitten she was a monster and the only reason I didn't kill her myself was because she did it for me." Damocles couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew his brother was close minded about those afflicted with curses and diseases but to actually speak of killing Elinor.

"Well you're wrong," hissed Damocles "and I'll prove it. I'm going to help them whether you like it or not. Damocles knew his family wouldn't understand but he felt he owed it to Elinor to at least try and help those who shared her fate. Owed it to her memory to stop anyone else suffering the way she had.

Gazing around his smoke filled potions room Damocles sighed heavily, He was used to hard work, used to the way potions could take time and energy to brew, after all it was the most subtle and precise branch of magic and he was a potioneer, but this, this was horrendous. Months and months of research and trials, weeks of brewing what he hoped would be a start of something and what did he get? A pain relieving potion, not even a very strong one at that. There had to be something he was missing, something he could use, something that would tame the wolf. He'd scoured all the books he could find about werewolves but there was nothing there. All of them covered the same ground, using the same words monster, beast, need to die. A few did branch out and explain how wolfsbane or silver could be used to poison a werewolf. Damocles gave a start as a realisation hit him, poison the wolf perhaps that is exactly what he needed to do. He'd have to be careful though wolfsbane was incredibly poisonous. One wrong slip and he could kill someone instead of helping them. Rushing to Diagon Alley to replenish his potions stock Damocles couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement. He was on his way to a cure, he could feel it.

Stirring the mixture in his cauldron feverishly Damocles muttered to himself.

"Wolfsbane, knot grass, dragons' blood all done. Stir twelve times clockwise and leave to simmer for one week. On return stir one hundred times counter clockwise whilst simultaneously adding the salamander scales and venomous tentacula pods. Done. Now add three drops of silver," adding the sparkling liquid he stepped back to see a plume of blue smoke issue from the cauldron. "Hmm that seems right. Oh I wish there was a different way of testing this." Scooping up a gobletful of the potion he handed it to the pale, scarred young witch sitting next to him. Her hazel eyes lingered on his face as she lifted the goblet in a pale imitation of a toast.

"Bottoms up" she whispered, downing the potion in one go. "Vile" she spluttered "sorry Sir" she quickly added glancing apologetically at Damocles.

"No need to apologise my dear child, I'm sure it does taste vile, and certainly no need to call me sir. Now I'm afraid that until we know whether the potion works we will still need to keep you isolated on the night of the full moon." The witch gulped but said nothing.

The moon rose one week later, a full fat circle, and Damocles couldn't tear his eyes away from it. He stared out of the window waiting to hear the howl that would indicate the failure of months of hard work. Instead he heard silence. His chair was placed directly in front of a large wooden door. He knew that if his patient, he refused to think of her as a test subject, had transformed as usual he would be able to hear her behind that door. Silence meant one of two things. The first possibility was that it had worked and even now Miss Allevia could be curled up, a harmless witch in a wolf's body for the time being or, and this didn't bear thinking about, he might have killed her. The amount of wolfsbane may have been too much or having taken silver internally may have been too much for her body to bear. Either way there was only one way to find out. Raising his wand he heard the clock click and the door swung open.

"Miss Allevia? Charis? Are, are you ok?" As his eyes grew accustomed to the gloom he felt a sharp intake of breath. There in front of him sitting with ears pricked, tail wagging and looking for all the world like a large happy dog was a fully grown werewolf.

"Oh merlin" he cried "I've done it Elinor. Not completely. It's still not a cure but it's a start. It's most definitely a start. Elinor I'm sorry I didn't save you but by Merlin I will try to save every other person and this, this is how I will begin." He laughed brightly as the wolf in front of him wagged its tail even more vigorously. This was a happy day.


End file.
